Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share with you my experience of taking in a stray dog and what has happened over the month of having her in my home. Maybe it might convince you to try adopting a stray too after you hear someone else’s experiences.

Mortishia is nearly 2 years old (we think) and her story is that she was found in a cornfield in the middle of now where in the countryside in Poland, probably dumped by someone, and she was walking around alone for nearly 9 months. People in the area saw her and fed her sometimes, but she was terrified of them so always kept her distance. The lady who we got her from was notified and it took her 3 months to catch her as she was so sneaky! They had many vet visits to attend as she was not in a very good state, but once finished, she was on the way to us here in the UK.

She arrived on the 17th Decemeber, which we will treat as her birthday, via a pet bus transport which took 2 days! Once she arrived we signed the relevant paperwork, payed for the transport and she was ours for keeping.

When she was first alone with us, she ran and hid behind an armchair we have in the living room, under the beds, would not sit still etc, she was terrified of us which we understood completely. We were all so upset as we wondered what could have been done to this dog that she was so afraid of people. It was also time for her first bath, as being in a crate in the pet bus for 2 days was not the best, the workers were not allowed to take her out as she has a history of running away. She didn’t struggle at all, probably due to fear, and we popped her down into her new doggy bed in my room by my bed, where is now always sleeps.

The first week she wouldn’t really move out of her bed, but gradually I would hear her play with her toys and walk around and sniff the room when the lights were off and no one was watching, but as soon as the lights are turned on she would go back to her bed. She now moves all around, but it is still clear that she is battling with herself inside her mind and does not fully trust us, i.e. she will come to the living room for a minute and then run away back on to the stairs again where she feels safe.

She is more trusting now, but still has her own issues, i.e. she won’t eat if someone is watching her. My dogs eat in the kitchen, but she has not got to that stage yet, we started at my room and now she is eating on the stairs so we are getting there!

We also noticed she is terrified of men, my dad and Dawid have a hard time being with her as she just runs away, which again leads us to think whoever hurt her must have been a man, again another thing we need to work on.

There are many things that still need to be done, for example we can’t really take her on a walk right now because she might run away, she is terrified of cables and small bangs, the hairdryer and vacuum in particular, shes not fully house trained yet and is not fond of making eye contact. These are all things that will come with time, she has still made a lot of progress in a month, more than we thought she would!

Thank you for reading this post on my experience with my first stray, honestly, if you are considering taking on a stray, you need to do some research on it, make sure you will have the time as they are kind of like babies and really be ready for anything!

Love, Kasia x